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Them: A Memoir of Parents
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Them: A Memoir of Parentsby Francine du Plessix Gray
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49 of 51 people found the following review helpful: A Memoir to Remember, May 13, 2005 Reviewer:Candace "thepageturner" (Los Angeles, CA USA) - Francine du Plessix Gray who, has written several fine novels as well as complex and satisfying biographies of the Marquis de Sade and Simone Weil, now tenderly explores the lives of her famously mercurial parents. "Them" is a success any way you look at it; the elegant writing and the loving way she examines the life she had with these completely self-absorbed people make this memoir worth reading. Her parents were Tatiana Yakoleva, a renowned New York designer of hats, and Alex Liberman, who was one of the creators of modern fashion journalism at Vogue. The du Plessix in Francine's name comes from her birth father, a hero of the French Resistance who died early in World War II. Although he never adopted her, Alex Liberman was the father she knew and loved, the man she and her mother always saw as the one who rescued them from the horrors of war. Tatiana had already fled one revolution, leaving Russia to live in Paris as a teenager with her grandmother, aunt, and uncle. In her early 20s, she met the dynamic Russian revolutionary poet and playwright Vladimir Mayakovsky during one of his visits to France. He wrote one of his most beautiful poems to her and begged her to return to Russia with him. But her fear was too great, and she married diplomat Bertrand du Plessix before Mayakovsky could return to again persuade her. Mayakovsky had been under growing scrutiny for his criticism of increasing oppression in the new Soviet Union, and he committed suicide shortly thereafter. His letters were one of the Tatiana's most carefully guarded items when she fled Europe. Photos from the family's arrival in New York make them look like a tight-knit trio, but Tatiana and Alex were terrible parents. They shuttled off Froshka, as they called her, with all sorts of extraneous family and friends. A friend had to tell her that her father was dead. They failed to tell her when they got married. They were as ambitious and thoughtless as two people can be. But they loved her very much. What makes this memoirs so remarkable is how warmly du Plessix Gray writes about all this. She does not see herself as a victim, which is probably why she has a close and healthy family life as an adult. Beautiful writing, fearlessness, and compassion make this a memoir that will hold readers captive from start to finish.
From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. "My mother enjoyed claiming direct descent from Genghis Khan," Gray explains as she opens this complex and rewarding family memoir. That claim gave her mother "both the aristocratic pedigree and the freedom to be a barbarian." Tatiana Yakovleva du Plessix Liberman was 19 and hungry in 1925 when she left the Soviet Union for France. Tatiana and Russian poet Vladimir Mayakovsky soon fell passionately in love, but the ever-practical woman married aristocratic Frenchman Bertrand du Plessix instead. They had one child, Francine, before du Plessix was killed in early WWII combat. Tatiana then became involved with Alexander Liberman, a British- and French-educated artistic Jewish-Russian émigré. Alex, Tatiana and Francine fled to New York in 1941 and started a new life—Tatiana designing hats for Bendel's before a career with Saks, Alex scaling the fashion journalism ladder at Condé Nast. New Yorker contributor Gray tells the story of this talented, self-absorbed couple from their roots to their graves. The final chapters—with the death of Demerol-addicted Tatiana and Alex's remarriage to an adoring nurse—are unbearably tragic, and the inside story of the Liberman ménage is more addictive than any Vanity Fair exclusive. Gray is such a fine writer, her family story reads like a novel of early 20th-century bohemianism gone corporate. Rich with history of early to mid-20th-century design and publishing, this memoir stands as an instructive model of how to write a difficult story honestly. Gray's parents were not nice people, but she loved them, and readers, by the end, understand why. Photos. Agents, Georges and Anne Borchardt. (May 5)
Copyright © Reed business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
From School Library Journal
Adult/High School–Gray is an engaging writer with a natural eye for the parts of her parents' lives that are most interesting to readers. It certainly helps that they were active and fascinating people. Her mother, Tatiana, was a hat designer in Paris and for Saks Fifth Avenue; her stepfather, Alexander Liberman, was an artist who came to run the giant Condé Nast publishing house. Both being social animals, their tale brings with it appearances by the rich and famous of the mid-20th century; the couple's often cruel behavior as they strove to advance in this world is interesting if unpleasant. Both individuals were Russian émigrés. Tatiana came from an artistic family whose influence ranged from her native country to France and, through her painter uncle, across the world. She became heavily involved with a leading Soviet poet, which ensured her own place in Soviet history. Alexander's father was one of Lenin's leading economic advisers, a non-Bolshevik whose abilities gained him trust and support. The book takes in many more relatives and, given their lives, includes courtiers, artists, spies, and heroes. It provides a good look at many different aspects of 20th-century social and political history, which alone makes it worthwhile reading. Black-and-white photos are included.–Ted Westervelt, Library of Congress, Washington, DC
Copyright © Reed business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
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